Satirical fiction and parodies

Book Synopsis'Holt is, as usual, absurd, funny, and light-handed enough with the completely ridiculous bits to keep the story moving, assuring that the reader doesn't actually notice how bizarre the story has become, or how tangled the mystery is, until it's nearly done.' - Booklist'Uniquely twisted . . . cracking gags.' - GuardianThere are all kinds of products. The good ones. The bad ones. The ones that stay in the garage mouldering for years until your garden gnome makes a home out of them. Most are harmless if handled properly, even if they do contain traces of peanuts. But some are not. Not the ones that contain traces of magic.Chris Popham wasn't paying enough attention when he talked to his SatNav. Sure, she gave him directions, never backtalked him, and always led him to his next spot on the map with perfect accuracy. She was the best thing in his life. So was it really his fault that he didn't start paying attention when she talked to him? In his defence, that was her job. But when 'Take the next right' turned into 'Excuse me,' that was when the real trouble started. Because sometimes a SatNav isn't a SatNav. Sometimes it's an imprisoned soul trapped inside a metal box that will do anything it can to get free. And some products you just can't return.Another slice of fantastic comic TOMfoolery.Books by Tom Holt: Walled Orchard Series Goatsong The Walled Orchard J.W. Wells & Co. Series The Portable Door In Your Dreams Earth, Air, Fire and Custard You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps The Better Mousetrap May Contain Traces of Magic Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages YouSpace Series Doughnut When It's A Jar The Outsorcerer's Apprentice The Good, the Bad and the Smug Novels Expecting Someone Taller Who's Afraid of Beowulf Flying Dutch Ye Gods! Overtime Here Comes the Sun Grailblazers Faust Among Equals Odds and Gods Djinn Rummy My Hero Paint your Dragon Open Sesame Wish you Were Here Alexander at World's End Only Human Snow White and the Seven Samurai Olympiad Valhalla Nothing But Blue Skies Falling SidewaysLittle PeopleSong for NeroMeadowlandBarkingBlonde BombshellThe Management Style of the Supreme BeingsAn Orc on the Wild Side

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Book Synopsis'Anything can happen... You turn the pages wondering, 'Whatever next?''' - SFXPolly, an average, completely ordinary property lawyer, is convinced she's losing her mind. Someone keeps drinking her coffee. And talking to her clients. And doing her job. And when she goes to the dry cleaner's to pick up her dress for the party, it's not there. Not the dress - the dry cleaner's.And then there are the chickens who think they are people. Something strange is definitely going on - and it's going to take more than a magical ring to sort it out.A wonderfully quirky and comedic outing from the hugely talented Tom HoltBooks by Tom Holt: Walled Orchard Series Goatsong The Walled Orchard J.W. Wells & Co. Series The Portable Door In Your Dreams Earth, Air, Fire and Custard You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps The Better Mousetrap May Contain Traces of Magic Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages YouSpace Series Doughnut When It's A Jar The Outsorcerer's Apprentice The Good, the Bad and the Smug Novels Expecting Someone Taller Who's Afraid of Beowulf Flying Dutch Ye Gods! Overtime Here Comes the Sun Grailblazers Faust Among Equals Odds and Gods Djinn Rummy My Hero Paint your Dragon Open Sesame Wish you Were Here Alexander at World's End Only Human Snow White and the Seven Samurai Olympiad Valhalla Nothing But Blue Skies Falling SidewaysLittle PeopleSong for NeroMeadowlandBarkingBlonde BombshellThe Management Style of the Supreme BeingsAn Orc on the Wild SideTrade ReviewA great mix of the fantastical and the funny . . . another great satirical offering from Tom Holt that entertains thoroughly while effortlessly moving between the silly and the smart * Bookgeeks.co.uk *Crazy, absurd, complex and hilarious . . . His writing is in the same mould as that of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde * TheBookBag.co.uk *

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Book SynopsisPresented in a new translation by Roger Cockrell, The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants was originally conceived as a play and first published in 1859, shortly after the author's release from forced military service. Gogolian in style and tone, and waspish in its description of the villainous Opiskin, it is a sustained exercise in caricatural cruelty and a comedic tour de force. The young Sergei is summoned from St Petersburg by his uncle, the retired colonel Yegor Rostanev, to the remote country estate of Stepanchikovo. Rostanev's household, populated by a medley of remarkable characters, is dominated by the figure of Foma Opiskin, a devious, manipulative hanger-on who has everyone in thrall and plots to marry the colonel to the woman of his choice, Tatyana Ivanova. When Opiskin finds that his plans are being thwarted, a confrontation with Rostanev ensues, and all hell is let loose.

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Book SynopsisThe ultimate Tolkien Parody. 300,000 copies sold in since 2001!Trade ReviewLurches drunkenly through Tolkien's narrative, scrawling graffiti on noble citadels and firing off gags with such machine-gun speed that something hits the funny bone on almost every page -- David Langford

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Book SynopsisThe author of Fight Club takes America beyond our darkest dreams in this timely satire. People pass the word only to those they trust most: Adjustment Day is coming. They’ve been reading a mysterious blue-black book and memorising its directives. They are ready for the reckoning. In this ingeniously comic work, Chuck Palahniuk’s first novel in four years, he does what he does best: skewer the absurdities in our society. Smug, geriatric politicians hatch a nasty fate for the burgeoning population of young males; working-class men dream of burying the elites; and professors propound theories that offer students only the bleakest future. When it arrives, Adjustment Day inaugurates a new, disunited states. In this mind-blowing novel, Palahniuk fearlessly makes real the logical conclusion of every separatist fantasy, alternative fact, and conspiracy theory lurking in the American psyche.‘His best book in years’ Irish IndependentTrade ReviewHis best book in years… Mashing up the current febrile mood in America and the destructive impulses of Fight Club, Adjustment Day… skewers every tribe in the identity politics rainbow… Welcome back, Chuck. -- Ian O'Doherty * Irish Independent *An heir to Chuck Palahniuk's most famous novel, Fight Club, Adjustment Day is one of the most ingeniously fucked-up and enticingly original novels to be published this year... Think Will Self, George Orwell, Stephen King and William Burroughs mixed up in a Molotov cocktail. * attitude *There is more than a mere whiff of Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Purge in Palahniuk’s latest novel, and it could be read as a treatise on contemporary America. * Irish Times *The Fight Club author is on a mission to offend everyone with his new satire about America… his humour expresses a genuine anger, and that gives his book a crackling energy… This is one of those books that is best enjoyed in a bad mood, when you’re thinking that a good cull is really what the human race needs, although even when feeling quite sunny, I found the glee Palahniuk takes in his Book of Revelation-esque scenario rather infectious. -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph *Timely… with crosshairs fixed on the absurdity of both sides of the political divide. Set in contemporary America, the novel seizes hold of dark separatist ideas and drags them to their ultimate conclusion. * iNews *

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Book SynopsisBoris Johnson's first novel, Seventy-Two Virgins is a no-holds-barred political satire, a comic romp peopled with a gallery of grotesques which lampoons both the absurdities and the extremes of modern society.Trade Review'A hectic comedy thriller…a rip-roaring knockabout farce…refreshingly unpompous, faintly dishevelled and often very funny.' Mail on Sunday 'At the centre of his first novel, a light comedy, is a terrorist plot of frightening ingenuity…the comedy is reminiscent of Tom Sharpe.' Sunday Times 'Johnson scores in his comic handling of those most sensitive issues…he succeeds in being charming and sincere…Boris Johnson has written a witty page-turner.' Observer 'Among the hilarious scenes of events and the wonderful dialogue which keeps the story moving at a cracking pace, Johnson uncovers some home truths…I can give no higher praise to this book than to say that I lapped it up at a single uproarious sitting.' Irish Examiner 'As an author, the Shadow Arts Minister is in a class of his own: ebullient, exhausting but irresistible.' Daily Mail 'fluent, funny material…the writing is vintage, Wodehousian Boris…it has been assembled with skill and terrific energy and will lift morale in the soul of many.' Evening Standard 'This is a comic novel, but Johnson is never far away from making serious points, which he leads us towards with admirable stealth.' Daily Telegraph

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Book Synopsis''Hugely relatable!'' HeatFans of Alexandra Potter, Marian Keyes and Caroline James will love Divorced Not Dead, a no-holds-barred, heartfelt and laugh-out-loud hilarious romcom about being fifty, but absolutely not yet dead yet!-We're going to need a bigger drinkMeet Frankie: fifty, divorced and getting back on the horse.After leaving Twatface her husband of twenty years she''s starting again from scratch. And when her son also flees the nest for university, Frankie decides it's time to throw herself back into the dating game with a vengeance.On best friend Bel''s recommendation, Frankie signs up to two dating apps: one for love, another for casual hook-ups (because why the f**k not?!).However, as she navigates this new frontier of catfishing, kittenfishing, ghosts, GILFs and everything in between, she realises the whole dating thing has changed quite a bit and it really is a bloody jungle out thereWill Frankie find love on the apps? Or the perfect shag?Or if there's any justice iTrade Review Sneak peek of Divorced Not Dead: “I’d have been content to stay with my dementor-ex until doomsday because I thought that’s what middle age was all about. Being somewhere between vaguely and violently unhappy. Making do; putting up; sticking it out. Staying for the sake of the kids. Sleepwalking through midlife in a general malaise. But, somewhere along the way, I woke up. There’s that bit in When Harry Met Sally where Harry says, ‘When you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.’ Well, that’s how I felt the day I left the marital home and moved into the flat above my shop. Except that the somebody I want to spend the rest of my life with is me. She’s been missing for a while, you see. Me, that is. Frances Brumby. More commonly known as Frankie. And I just found her again…” –––––––––––––––––––––- ‘This book is like a (very big) glass of wine with a friend – honest, unfiltered, hilarious. Your cheeks will hurt from laughing so much!’ Louise Pentland, author of Time After Time ‘Brilliantly observed, hilariously documented, a celebration of life at fifty…Personal, funny, relatable and motivational.’ Shazia Mirza, award-winning stand-up comedian and writer ‘It's a blast – defiantly funny. We need more books like this!’ Georgie Hall, author of Woman of a Certain Rage ‘Entertaining and enlightening …Sex education was never like this the first time around!’ Julie Ma, author of Happy Families ‘Whipsmart, feminist and sex-positive…I defy anyone to read this without cackling!’ Kitty Wilson, author of The Love Experiment 'A funny, frank and loving book. Enjoy!' Award-winning actress Lesley Sharp ‘Hugely relatable…you will cheer on Frankie as she navigates a minefield of single men!’ Heat ‘A useful handbook for anyone back on the dating scene!’ Platinum

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Book SynopsisPenguin presents the audiobook edition of Animal Farm by George Orwell.''All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others''When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another.(P) Penguin Audio 2021

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Book SynopsisA subversively comic, genre-bending satire of bourgeois life by an essential Chinese American voice, featuring an introduction by New Yorker writer Hua Hsu, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir Stay TrueA Penguin ClassicIt's Depression-era New York, and Mr. Nut, an oblivious American everyman, wants to strike it rich, even if at the moment he's unemployed, with no job prospects in sight. Over the course of a single night, in a narrative that unfolds hour by hour, he meets a cast of strange characters—disgruntled workers at a Communist cafeteria, lecherous old men, sexually exploited women, pesky authors—who eventually convince him to cast off his bourgeois aspirations for upward mobility and become a radical activist. Absurdist, inventive, and suffused with revolutionary fervor, and culminating in a dramatic face-off against capitalist power in the figure of the greedy businessman Mr. System, The Hanging on UnTrade Review“A surreal overnight journey . . . Thirty-year-old bestseller The Joy Luck Club perennially provides irrefutable proof Asian American stories warrant shelf space. That Penguin Classics—their venerable list considered a significant barometer of what comprises the Anglophone literary canon—has added this . . . is, undoubtedly, long-awaited, long-deserved recognition.” —The Christian Science Monitor“I finished H. T. Tsiang's masterpiece a few hours ago and I'm still not sure where I am and what day this is. My mind has been picked apart and reassembled. I need a drink.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story“[Tsiang] was radiant, boisterous, unforgettable.” —The New Yorker“A portrait of a New York City for the rich and the poor, the immigrant and the native-born, the newly homeless and the seasoned itinerant . . . Tsiang . . . tried to tell America what it really looked like. . . . [Unlike his] social-realist contemporaries—the Steinbecks and the dos Passoses— . . . Tsiang had little interest in steely, self-serious misery. In the book, as in his life, he is constantly cheeky and self-deprecating. . . . Tsiang’s manic spirit animates his voice. . . . Though the book’s formal aspects range from jarring to quaint to delightful, they all reflect the infectious freedom with which Tsiang wrote. His flinging disregard for the fashionable and the novelistic are thrilling, but so are the serious, deep convictions underlying them. For anyone with revolutionary sympathies, it’s an emotionally stirring book.” —The Nation“This is a voice to which the white world . . . will have to listen more and more as time passes.” —Upton Sinclair “[The Hanging on Union Square] felt like slipping into another person's hallucination.” —Hua Hsu, from the Introduction“[A] masterwork.” —Floyd Cheung, from the Afterword“Tsiang's writings are quintessentially of the intermingled (and dangerous) public street culture of downtown Manhattan creative life. He carried the mantle, unknowingly, of Wong Chin Foo—who five decades earlier challenged Denis Kearney to a duel with Irish potatoes at Cooper Union's Great Hall. And we, the Mr. Nut faction of the Asian American movement, carry on Tsiang's spirit!” —John Kuo Wei Tchen, author of New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882“An artist of distinction, H. T. Tsiang created a genre unto itself in 1935 with The Hanging on Union Square. Its republication after seventy-five years rescues—from an outlaw existence—a strangely and beautifully evocative satiric allegory.” —Alan Wald, author of American Night: The Literary Left in the Era of the Cold War“[The Hanging on Union Square] is original in form without being labored; and it's remarkable for its whimsical insights into various strata of society and for its flashing counterpoint of almost savage sensuality and delicate pity. Throughout, it is alive and evocative. Mr. Tsiang's fanciful and often fantastic visions . . . convey more truth than a shelf of reportorial novels.” —Waldo Frank

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Book Synopsis''A liberating and lacerating critique of American racial madness, capitalism and white superiority ... Schuyler''s wild, misanthropic, take-no-prisoners satire of American life seems more relevant than ever ... Afrofuturist before such a term existed'' New York Review of Books Telling the extraordinary story of a mysterious process that can turn black skin white in 1930s America, Black No More is a pioneering and caustic work of Black speculative fiction from one of the great Harlem Renaissance authors.''A clever and biting satire'' Isabel Wilkerson, The New York Times Book Review''No one is safe from Schuyler''s biting mockery'' The New York TimesTrade ReviewA liberating and lacerating critique of American racial madness, capitalism, and white superiority . . . Black No More resists the push toward preaching and the urge toward looking backward into history. Afrofuturist before such a term existed, it insists, instead, on peering forward into what could come to be. * The New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisContinuing what has been dubbed his ''revenge on two hundred years of American history'', Gore Vidal locates this novel in Washington. But this is 1917, and Hollywood is now competing with America''s capital as the nation''s power-base, just as it fights for centre-stage in this book. Caroline Sanford, erstwhile newspaper magnate, launches herself into the West Coast land of celluloid dreams and becomes, overnight, an international star. Not for nothing, on the dawn of World War One, is Caroline making films like the Huns from Hell. She is a government agent. But in Washington, that government isn''t doing awfully well. Weighed down by his League of Nation''s failure, by Roosevelt, Clemenceau, a stroke and the ship-like tonnage of his wife Edith, President Woodrow Wilson is on the wane - and Warren Harding is on the up. A popular, handsome, toothpick-chomping philanderer and dimwit whose wife is given to consulting spiritualists, he is about to usher in a new era. One of unprecedented Trade ReviewAddictive ... almost indecently entertaining * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW *Rich, readable stuff, and only Vidal could make it work * FINANCIAL TIMES *Gore Vidal's magnificent series of historical novels or novelised histories' Gabriel García Márquez

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Book SynopsisErnest Ralph Gorse''s heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and panache with which he swindles his victims. With great deftness and precision Hamilton exposes how his dupes'' own naivete, snobbery or greed make them perfect targets. These three novels are shot through with the brooding menace and sense of bleak inevitability so characteristic of the author. There is also vivid satire and caustic humour. Gorse is thought to be based on the real-life murderer Neville Heath, hanged in 1946.

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Book Synopsis''Satisfying and entertaining.'' - RT Book Reviews''Entertaining.... Holt has a zany humor that will appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett and Christopher Moore.'' - Library JournalA HAPPY WORKFORCE, IT IS SAID, IS A PRODUCTIVE WORKFORCE.Try telling that to an army of belligerent goblins. Or the Big Bad Wolf. Or a professional dragon slayer. Who is looking after their well-being? Who gives a damn about their intolerable working conditions, lack of adequate health insurance, and terrible coffee in the canteen?Thankfully, with access to an astonishingly diverse workforce and limitless natural resources, maximizing revenue and improving operating profit has never really been an issue for the one they call ''the Wizard.'' Until now.Because now a perfectly good business model-based on sound fiscal planning, entrepreneurial flair, and only one or two of the infinite parallel worlds that make up our universe-iTrade ReviewLike the deep-fried snack after which it's named, this sci-fi novel is sweet and fun - SUN on DOUGHNUTA light read from the prolific humourist; a romp round the multiverse - SFX on DOUGHNUTA great mix of the fantastical and the funny . . . another great satirical offering from Tom Holt that entertains thoroughly while effortlessly moving between the silly and the smart - BOOK GEEKS on LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF SAUSAGESCrazy, absurd, complex and hilarious . . . His writing is in the same mould as that of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde - BOOKBAG on LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF SAUSAGES

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Book SynopsisA brilliant, indelible novel of teenage alienation and adult complacency in a world whose climate and culture are unravelling.Trade Review"An American author steps out of the shadows with a dystopian novel of great power." -- Adam Begley - The Sunday Times"The pandemic amplifies the resonance of this brilliant end-of-days escapade… if the conclusion doesn’t leave you with goosebumps, then you should probably check your pulse." -- Stephanie Cross - The Daily Mail"New England children caught up in an apocalyptic storm have to fend for themselves in this powerful novel by a talented American writer who has often flown under the literary radar." -- 100 Best Holiday Reads - The Sunday Times"... in A Children’s Bible, Lydia Millet maps the consequences of an environmental apocalypse with unnerving, fable-like simplicity." -- The Best Novels of 2020 - The Telegraph"A haunting dystopia about climate change denial... Funny and sobering, Millet's 13th novel sees a group of adults settle into a mansion for a heady summer, idling away their time with drugs and sex." -- Best Paperbacks: March 2021 - The Guardian"A Children’s Bible... begins in a crumbling mansion where a group of bored, surly, privileged teens are spending the summer sequestered with their ne’er do well parents. Just as it begins to seem like a summer teen romp, the story takes a dramatic turn in the shape of a cataclysmic storm. What follows is brilliant—and feels both inevitable and strangely magical. How those teens tell the story, which transforms this climate emergency into a brutally honest, funny and moving indictment of the generations leaving a broken world for them to inherit, is especially refreshing." -- Diane Cook, The Best Books of 2020 - The Evening Standard"This superb novel begins as a generational comedy — a pack of kids and their middle-aged parents coexist in a summer share — and turns steadily darker, as climate collapse and societal breakdown encroach. But Millet’s light touch never falters; in this time of great upheaval, she implies, our foundational myths take on new meaning and hope." -- 100 Notable Books of 2020 - The New York Times Book Review"Here's an idea: As the world falls apart all around us, why not read a book about the world falling apart in a totally different way? Not just any book, though, it kind of has to be A Children's Bible, the brilliant Lydia Millet's latest, in which the oblivious destructiveness of a certain self-indulgent generation of adults is rightfully skewered, as a new generation of hyper-mature teens must figure out how to live without any concrete kind of guidance." -- Best Books of 2020, So Far - Refinery29"A perfect novel for now." -- Metro

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Book SynopsisAn offbeat, wryly funny debut that follows eccentric product engineer Ava as she becomes drawn to her startlingly charismatic new boss - who seems determined to get close to her at all costs......Trade ReviewRed flags spur thriller-like suspense while incisive observations on corporate life's cult-like nature sharpen the satire in this pleasingly idiosyncratic office romcom * Observer *Laugh-out-loud funny... This unusual satire about office culture has humour and heart * Good Housekeeping *A slick comedy-drama thriller * Sainsbury's Magazine (Book Club Choice) *Serves up romance and thrills whilst exploring toxic masculinity, grief and friendship. Full of wit, this is one you'll want to immediately add to the bedside table to-be-read pile * Diva *Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman are linguistic magicians, and their sparkling debut manages to expose the hollowness of well-being jargon while exploring, with tender care and precision, how we dare to move on after unspeakable loss * New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisJulius Taranto's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, and phoebe. He attended Yale Law School and Pomona College. He lives in New York.Trade ReviewTaranto’s hilarious, provocative debut novel, is at once bracingly contemporary and reassuringly familiar . . . The novel’s peculiar genius lies in how you’re never entirely sure where Taranto’s sympathies lie. * The Times *A punchy and very funny campus novel which manages to satirise the culture wars without ever making too clear which side of the cancel-culture v anti-woke divide the author stands on * Nicola Sturgeon *A hit, a very palpable hit * The Spectator *Outstanding * The Wall Street Journal *Razor sharp . . . bracingly clever . . . a viciously funny page-turner with plenty of surprises up its sleeve * Vogue *A gleefully irreverent satire of so-called cancel culture, virtue signaling, and early-21st-century hypocrisy. * The Atlantic *Witty and provocative . . . Taranto understands the appeal of bad-man geniuses, and he understands their dangers, too. -- Vox, 'Best Books of 2023'Very funny. Very good -- B.J. NovakWith How I Won A Nobel Prize Julius Taranto achieves the near-impossible: a literary comedy about cancel culture that is neither priggish nor self-satisfiedly transgressive, less about culture wars than the neverending battle of being human. A novel of ideas in the tradition of Norman Rush's Mating, How I Won A Nobel Prize is one of the best new novels I've read in years. -- Tara Isabella Burton, author of Social CreatureA wildly original debut . . . Can a high-powered male lawyer write a propulsive, smart, funny novel about science, cancel culture, and #MeToo with a female protagonist? Absolutely. It’s exactly what Julius Taranto has done in his debut, How I Won A Nobel Prize. * Publishers Weekly *A high-wire act, balancing savvy political satire with brilliant character development and prose that sings and guffaws with nuance * Shelf Awareness *Julius Taranto does an incredible job crafting an ambitious and nuanced narrative abut "cancel culture" that'll keep you laughing from start to finish. * Coveteur *

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Book SynopsisBrilliant . . . Miguel Syjuco is his country's most original and unflinching literary voice. Salman RushdieIt's a rare novel that leaves you reeling simultaneously with admiration, exhaustion, amazement at its author's reach and skill, and desolation at the world it spreads out before you . . . [A] raging protest of a book. James Lasdun, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)From Miguel Syjuco, the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize for Ilustrado, I Was the President''s Mistress!! is an unflinching satire about power, corruption, sex, and all the other topics you were told never to discuss in polite company.How much would you sacrifice for what you believe? Is what you believe even true? And what if you secretly recorded the crimes of your once-trusted loverwho also happens to be the president? For Vita Nova, introverted megastar, such a conundrum could ruin everything. All

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Book SynopsisA whip-smart, dark comedy for fans of Sally Rooney, Fleabag and My Year of Rest and Relaxation''Janet is my soulmate'' LUCY MANGAN''Surprising and irreverent'' NEW YORK TIMES***If there was a pill that promised happiness... Would you take it?Meet Janet. Janet is sad. Not about her life, about the world. Have you seen it these days?The thing is, she''s not out to make anyone else sad. She''s not turning up to weddings shouting that most marriages end in divorce. She just wants to wear her giant coat, get rid of her passive-aggressive boyfriend, and avoid human interaction at the rundown dog shelter where she works.That is, until word spreads about a new pill that promises cynics like her one day off from being sad. When her family stages an intervention, and the prospect of making it through Christmas alone seems like too much, Janet finally decides to gTrade ReviewTold in Janet's distinctive voice, I found this engaging satirical novel very funny * Daily Mail *Surprising and irreverent...Be prepared for edginess, dark humor and profanity * NEW YORK TIMES *BRILLIANT. Janet is my soulmate. If ever there was a year you needed a brutally hilarious story abt the need for dedicated anti-depressants to deal with an oncoming Christmas THIS IS IT. I loved it deeply * LUCY MANGAN *Britsch's tart debut is a wicked satire of our obsession with happiness * i NEWS *As I was reading this, my partner kept asking why I was laughing. This book is dark and hilarious and will speak to everyone who's ever wondered why they spend time with humans and not just dogs * Rowan Hisayo Buchanan *Sharp, sad, hilarious * CLARE BEAMS *A strangely exuberant meditation on sadness * REFINERY29 *Sharply observed, dark and full of wit * HALEH AGAR *A whipsmart, biting piece of tragicomedy which manages to inspire real laughter while celebrating sadness. Hilarious, profound and deeply refreshing * HUFFPOST *I am LOVING this book! Sentence after sentence of funny lil gems * ANNIE HARTNETT *A narrator like a grown up Daria, still trying to live authentically while wracked with depression. Funny and sharp as hell. * HELEN MCCLORY *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Dennard Dayle’s 17 speculative tales, girdled by a Devil’s Dictionary of 501 satiric definitions (literary, political, what-have-you), are by turns prescient of our anxious, conspiracy-fraught times and mournful of majestic worlds to come ruined by all too familiar hatreds. But the post-WWIII stand-up riffs? Truly funny stuff.” * Vulture *“Slyly defiant and blazingly imaginative, like the best modernist literature, Everything Abridged is a powerful celebration of flaw and failure. It’s a book that revels in the timelessness of obsolescence and the freedom of powerlessness. Dayle’s a genre-shattering writer, whose wit and intellect never cease to entertain. This refreshingly original and powerfully funnycollection is a debut to remember.” * Paul Beatty, New York Times bestselling author of The Sellout *“Written as a dictionary, with hilarious and so-blunt-they're-sharp definitions of terms like ‘LimeWire,’ ‘mouse utopia,’ and ‘Perry, Tyler,’ Dayle's debut collection of stories is as likely to stun as it is to inform... incredibly entertaining and so damn illuminating.” * Entertainment Weekly *“Everything Abridged: Stories by Dennard Dayle:Miscategorized. Calling this addictively book-shaped act of language subversion “stories” is like calling New York City “buildings” The nonstandard reference to all sorts of things it would have been disturbing to learn if you hadn’t been laughing so hard Herald of a major new talent—what more do you need to know? Why are you still reading the cover and not the inside?” * Susan Choi, National Book Award–winning author of Trust Exercise *“With Everything Abridged, Dennard Dayle innovates form as much as he does content, creating a work that is funny and familiar, no matter if he’s writing about comedians from Mars, battery-powered humans, or radicalized comic book writers. Combining wit, humor, and an uncanny ability to get to the heart of what can both plague and save us, Dayle is a writer who isn’t ruffling feathers, but plucking the bird bare, and I am grateful as hell for it. Without a doubt one of the best collections I’ve ever read.” * Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck *“This is one of the most useful books on the current American berserk that I have read in a long time. Kudos, Dennard. You said what we were all trying to say while we were very (angrily) chewing on our kale salads.” * Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story *“Funnier and smarter than pretty much everything else you’ve read in your lifetime.” * Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances and Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch *“Dayle has broken every rule to create a rollicking satire skewering American hypocrisy. A short story collection that artfully manages to be part dictionary and part joke book, Everything Abridged is a must-read for anyone who still believes humor is the fast track to truth.” * Jessi Jezewska Stevens, author of The Exhibition of Persephone Q *

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Book SynopsisThe Devil’s Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing laughter with his witty opinion columns, poems, and definitions. Toward the end of his career, he decided to compile these satirical definitions into a book, following in the footsteps of Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, and Gustave Flaubert. Immensely popular upon publication, The Devil’s Dictionary inspired countless imitators, but remains one-of-a-kind. Reading Bierce’s definitions today, it’s not hard to imagine the controversy they must have caused, matched only by the laughs they must have roused, when published at the onset of the twentieth century. Written during a period of undaunted industrial growth, of immense wealth and promise in a nation recently torn apart by civil war, The Devil’s Dictionary preserves a tantalizing touch of irreverence and doubt which must remain funny to those who know humor when they sense it. “AIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful providence for the fattening of the poor.” “CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” Crafted for the cynic, quoted by the misanthrope, Bierce’s definitions prove profoundly entertaining and frequently accurate—sort of—over a century after they were published. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisThe Great American Novel (1923) is an experimental novel by William Carlos Williams. Although he is predominately known as a poet, Williams frequently pushed the limits of prose style throughout his career. In the defining decade of Modernism, Williams sought to try his hand at the so-called “Great American Novel,” a concept fueling impassioned debate in academic and artistic circles nationwide. Far from conventional, Williams’ novel is a metafictional foray into matters more postmodern than modern, a commentary masquerading as narrative and a satire of the all-American overreliance on cliché in form and content. “If there is progress then there is a novel. Without progress there is nothing. Everything exists from the beginning. I existed in the beginning. I was a slobbering infant. Today I saw nameless grasses—I tapped the earth with my knuckle. It sounded hollow. It was dry as rubber. Eons of drought. No rain for fifteen days. No rain. It has never rained. It will never rain.” Williams’ novel begins with the word and a birth. Language describes the experience of awakening to experience, of coming into consciousness as a living being in a living world. Using words from everyday speech, he builds a novel out of observations, a book that remains conscious of itself throughout. Like the child whose first experience with the written word often comes from names and slogans stretched over trucks and billboards, the reader eventually comes to accept their new reality, a world where people love and succeed and fail, where history and art intercede to make meaning where they can. The Great American Novel showcases Williams’ experimental form, stretching the meaning of “novel” to its outermost limit. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Carlos Williams’ The Great American Novel is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book Synopsis_____________________The long-awaited sequel to KILL YOUR FRIENDSA Guardian Book of the Year 2018It is 2017 – the time of Trump, Brexit and fake news. And time for the return of Steven Stelfox, former A&R man who made his millions from a hit reality TV show. Now Stelfox works occasionally as a music industry ‘consultant’. A fixer. He’s had a call from his old friend James Trellick, president of one of the largest record companies in America. Trellick has a huge problem on his hands in the shape of...Lucius Du Pre. Once the biggest pop star on earth. Now he’s a helpless junkie, a prolific sexual predator, and massively in debt to Trellick’s record company. And the picture only gets bleaker when the parents of one of Du Pre’s ‘special friends’ begin blackmailing him.Enter Stelfox stage right. He’s the perfect man to find a way out of this nightmare, and to make a killing in the process. There’s no line he won’t cross. _____________________‘A banging action satirical thriller. But it’s also a proper novel about the Trumpian era, of the reality TV era, the fake news era. It’s managed to say a lot of things in a way that very few other novels are doing and in a very comedic way’ IRVINE WELSH'A bruising triumph; Amis' MONEY for the Trump generation. What a monster he's created' IAN RANKIN‘John Niven understands our era better than almost anyone’ DOUGLAS COUPLAND‘A scabrously entertaining satire of what it is like to be rich and white in the land of the free if you are utterly depraved, “where money doesn’t just talk, or swear, it nukes”. … There is a twisted poetry in Niven’s mastery of invective’ THE TIMES‘Savagely, viciously witty, this frantic hymn to greed is filthy, frenetic and totally fabulous’ SUNDAY MIRROR‘A full-throttle send up of toxic masculinity … Niven at full tilt is always something to behold.’METROTrade ReviewA banging action satirical thriller. But it’s also a proper novel about the Trumpian era, of the reality TV era, the fake news era. It’s managed to say a lot of things in a way that very few other novels are doing and in a very comedic way. -- Irvine WelshJohn Niven understands our era better than almost anyone. -- Douglas CouplandThe off-colour banter, hellbent on causing offence to all and sundry, masks an unimpeachable commitment to social justice … [A] full-throttle send up of toxic masculinity … Niven at full tilt is always something to behold. * Metro *‘A bruising triumph; Amis’ Money for the Trump generation. What a monster he’s created.’ -- Ian Rankin‘Savagely, viciously witty, this frantic hymn to greed is filthy, frenetic and totally fabulous.’ * Sunday Mirror *

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Book SynopsisTHE ICONIC AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING PHENOMENON CRAZY RICH ASIANS RETURNS WITH THE GLITTERING TALE OF A YOUNG WOMAN WHO FINDS HERSELF TORN BETWEEN TWO MEN.'Your perfect summer read' Daily Mail'Delightful' Independent'Laugh-out-loud funny' Sunday MirrorWhen Lucie Tang Churchill meets George Zao at a lavish wedding in Capri, she can't stand him. She can't stand that he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so she can have a sea view, that he knows more about the island than she does, and worst of all, that he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins. What would her Mayflower-descended, Wall Street-wealthy family think of him? But years later, when Lucie is weekending with her fiancé in East Hampton, George unexpectedly appears and Lucie must decide - does she follow her head or her heart? A gloriously decadent homage to A Room with a View, Sex and Vanity is a glittering modern love story and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.Trade ReviewDelightful ... complete with designer outfits, glamorous parties, and exotic locations. * Independent BEST BOOKS OF 2020 *Sex and Vanity scores high on all intended fronts; the opening half, set in Capri, is bathed in sunshine and sexual tension. The novel reads like travel porn, listing the island's best and lesser-known sights, places to eat, stay and drink. And then there is the story of Lucie Tang Churchill, a biracial New York princess from the Upper East Side, attending an eye-wateringly extravagant wedding. * Guardian *Sex and Vanity is basically your PERFECT SUMMER READ. Set in Capri, New York & the Hamptons, the location descriptions are so evocative you will feel like you're there. The characters bounce around the globe engaging in pretty much the binary opposite of social distancing so a double win for this delicious, delightful romp. -- Sara Lawrence * Daily Mail *This satirical romp through the gilded lives of the international super-rich is laugh-out-loud funny, with all the crackle you'd expect from the author of Crazy Rich Asians, plus a tender love story at its heart. * Sunday Mirror *Sex and Vanity, another decadent romance novel by Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan ... [is] the perfect summer read. * You Magazine *

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Book SynopsisOne Man’s Journey is a re-imagining of events that occurred from the day of Tony Blair's resignation in 2007. The story is a satirical take on our hero's search for meaningful employment from that date onwards. We follow Tony in his desperation to find a job. His bitterness at having being forced out of office pervades the entire story as does his wish to be re-united with his best friend, former-President Bush. Following a traumatic event, Tony is finally contacted by George who offers him a job: to be his personal representative on the first manned NASA mission to the planet Mars. In light of very little else, he accepts and blasts off to Mars accompanied by a crew of elderly astronauts. But the mission isn't as plain sailing as he'd hoped and Tony's time could be running out...

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Book SynopsisWith a new introduction by Professor John Sutherland, this edition takes a fresh look at one of the great works of the twentieth century. Animal Farm is a moral animal fable written to highlight the weakness of humankind, and satirize the rule of Stalin, whose rise through revolution ended in totalitarianism. Peppered with slogans such as 'All Animals Are Equal', Orwell undermines the dark treachery of the pigs with a simple economy of style as, open-eyed and naive, the other animals allow themselves to be outmanoeuvred. By the end of the book the pigs are as corrupt and arrogant as the humans they replace. For many, the book was a wider allegory of human behaviour, a lament; but for others it was a call to action that foreshadowed the Cold War, where differing world views would attempt to adopt Orwell's great work for their own purpose.

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Book SynopsisTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERIreland, Ireland - no longer standing Dáil ...Leinster House had been burned to the ground. All that was left was a smouldering ruin and the blackened remains of an Irish flag.The old man was trying to pin the blame on Brussels, but I knew the actual truth? Unfortunately, Sorcha was too angry with me for having sex with our daughter's Irish teacher to listen.But I had, like, other irons in the - pordon the pun - fire. I'd just become Head Coach of the Ireland rugby team - albeit, women.The country might well have been focked. But very soon, we had everyone believing in fairy tales again.And it all happened once upon a time in . . . Donnybrook_______'Ross is a national institution' Irish Times'In a league of his own' Business PostTrade ReviewRoss is a national institution * Irish Times *One of the funniest writers in the land * Irish Examiner *Ireland's finest comic creation since Father Ted * Hot Press *In a league of his own * Business Post *

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Book SynopsisA light-hearted satirical novel set at the National Eisteddfod Maes at Meifod.

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Book SynopsisThe Mudfog Papers, a collection of sketches by Dickens published in Bentley’s Miscellany between 1837 and 1838, describes the local politics of the fictional town of Mudfog – such as the delusions of grandeur of its mayor Nicholas Tulrumble and his disastrous attempts at putting on a public show – and the meetings of its Society for the Advancement of Everything, during which the town is overrun by illustrious scientists and professors conducting ostensibly pointless research. Written at the same time as Oliver Twist – indeed the serialized version of the novel referred to Mudfog as the protagonist’s home town – The Mudfog Papers lampoons all manner of journalistic and scientific writing of the time and showcases the young Dickens at his satirical best.Trade ReviewThe power of [Dickens] is so amazing that the reader at once becomes his captive. -- William Makepeace Thackeray

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Book SynopsisHelen and Ridley Ambrose are preparing to set off for an exotic resort off the coast of South America on the Euphrosyne, a ship belonging to Helen’s brother-in-law Willoughby Vinrace. Travelling with them is his daughter Rachel – a quiet, unremarkable girl raised in the London suburbs by her spinster aunts after the death of her mother. Along the way other people come aboard, such as the upper-class Clarissa and Richard Dalloway. As Rachel interacts with the passengers, intrigued by their different personalities, it becomes clear that what started for her as a mere sea voyage is turning into a journey of self-discovery and a rite of passage that will change her for ever. Published in 1915 after a long period of gestation and several drafts, The Voyage Out marks Virginia Woolf’s debut as a novelist. Perhaps the most accessible of her major works, it is essential both for understanding the early development of her style and for the light it sheds on her own biography and artistic vision.

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Book SynopsisIn rich and abundant illustrations, Annie West tells a rowdy story of artistic struggle, ego and unexpected kindness. You will never look at the Irish Literary Canon in the same way again.

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Book SynopsisWith psychological insight and sparkling wit, Jane Austen paints an irresistibly lifelike portrait of shifting values and split loyalties in Mansfield Park.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. Gorgeously illustrated by the celebrated Hugh Thomson, this edition also includes an afterword by historian and author Nigel Cliff.Aged ten, Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthier relations, the Bertrams, at Mansfield Park. However, life there is not as she imagined. Treated with disdain by three of her cousins, she finds her only comfort in the kindness of the fourth, Edmund. As they grow, their friendship develops into romantic love - until the arrival of Henry Crawford and his charming sister Mary causes an emotional upheaval that no one in the family expects.Trade ReviewI can’t leave Mansfield Park alone. When driving or washing dishes or folding laundry, I turn on an audio version and listen, and I keep the little speckled copy of the text near me at all times. -- Anna Keesey * LA Review of Books *Mansfield Park highlights, as no other Austen novel does, the role that class and class privilege play in determining the popular qualities for a heroine’s charm and wit. -- Tara Isabella Burton * The Paris Review *

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Book SynopsisIn the middle of a gang war, wanted for murder, truly alone and outside the law, Detective Inspector LeBrock is on the run from both the police and gangster assassins, the victim of a diabolical scheme to annihilate himself and everyone he holds dear, engineered by mastermind crime lord Tiberius Koenig, one of the most despicable villains in the history of detective fiction.A fiendishly ingenious story of love, tenacity, treachery and tragedy, this fifth, final and longest stand-alone volume of the Eisner and Hugo Award-nominated Grandville series by master storyteller and graphic novel pioneer Bryan Talbot is a veritable rollercoaster of a detective thriller, featuring Grandville’s trademark high-octane excitement, humour and deduction on a Holmesian scale as we finally meet LeBrock’s mentor, Stamford Hawksmoor, and discover LeBrock’s untold backstory. Fan-favourite characters Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi and LeBrock’s vivacious fiancée, Parisian prostitute Billie are joined by a new badger in town! Enter Tasso, an Italian badger who’s bigger, meaner and uglier than LeBrock – but is he a force for good or evil? A battle royale ensues as LeBrock fights against truly outrageous odds. How can he possibly survive?Prepare to be royally badgered!Trade ReviewI have greatly enjoyed the Grandville books. I think they’re superbly designed, beautifully conceived, admirably written – everything about them is terrific. They really show what the form can do. A graphic novel built on the solid foundation of a strong story. -- Philip PullmanThe latest and last in the sequence Grandville Force Majeure is an epic of anthropomorphised sex and violence featuring a huge cast of badgers (including our hero Detective Inspector LeBrock), lizards, rats and even a Dalmation. It’s a heady mix of Holmesian ratiocination and SF steampunk technology straight out of a Jules Verne novel, lashed to a story that takes in gang violence, freemasons and secret identities. And it’s so slick. Talbot’s great facility as a comic artist gives his narrative extra oomph. The result is fast-moving and hugely entertaining. -- Teddy Jamieson * Herald Scotland *Exceeds the standards… Of all in its league. * Blouin Artinfo *

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Book SynopsisJust before her twenty-seventh birthday, Jazzy hatches a plan. Before the year is out, she and her best girlfriends will all have spectacular weddings to rich ang moh - Western expat - husbands, with Chanel babies to follow. As Jazzy - razor-sharp and vulgar, yet vulnerable - fervently pursues her quest to find a white husband, the contentious gender politics and class tensions thrumming beneath the shiny exterior of Singapore's glamorous nightclubs are revealed. Desperate to move up in Asia's financial and international capital, will Jazzy and her friends succeed?Vividly told in Singlish - colourful Singaporean English with its distinctive cadence and slang - Sarong Party Girls brilliantly captures the unique voice of a young, striving woman caught between worlds. With remarkable vibrancy and empathy, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan brings not only Jazzy, but her city of Singapore, to dazzling, dizzying life.Trade Review[A] powerful, occasionally astonishing story about materialism, status and manipulation...fascinating. * Daily Mail *Delectably vulgar, it perfectly captures Jazzy's world and is joyous to read . . . The book's brilliance lies in its reflection of the racism, sexism and classism in Jazzy's society, and her growing awareness and ability to handle it...Lu-Lien Tan has done a fantastic job of bringing Jazzy to life and of balancing the juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary values in Singapore. An absolute summer must-read. * The Skinny *a subversive critique of Singapore's gender and racial hierarchy * gal-dem *[A] very funny, irreverent, sharp-eyed debut . . . Jazzy's voice is the heart and soul of the book: tart, spirited, brazen, naïve, knowing. * Slate *Utterly irresistible....I fell in love with Jazzy's fresh, exuberant voice and trenchant wit. In her debut novel, Tan is saying something profound and insightful about the place of women in our globalized, capitalized, interconnected world. -- Ruth OzekiIn Singapore, this satirical novel of predatory beauties would be regarded as deeply subversive - for the rest of us, and anyone familiar with life in that little island city-state, it is hilarious and original. -- Paul TherouxScarlett O'Hara would have met her match in Jazeline Lim, the brazen, striving, yet ultimately vulnerable heroine of this bold debut novel. -- Julia Glass, National Book Award-winning author of THREE JUNESDarkly funny, Sarong Party Girls is one very determined woman's journey through modern Singapore, an intoxicating crossroads of culture, money and ambition. Her voice is utterly new and engaging, bringing her world to vivid life from the first sentence. -- Ayelet Waldman

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Book Synopsis"Unfortunately making the greatest rap album of all time was to be put on hold as the insidious Job Centre advisors had finally had enough of my shit. I would be forced to sign up to one of the town's two recruitment agencies, or I would be starved of weed money." Leonard Swanson lives in an obscure north-western town — the kind that "has a knack for swallowing you whole". He is supposed to be making the greatest rap album of all time, Swan Songs, but instead is forced to work in one of the town's factories, "picking things up and putting them down for twelve hours in a giant white room". Swan Songs follows Leonard as he works, quits, signs on, and travels the country, playing in small capacity venues for even smaller capacity audiences, for which he gets "paid in booze, drugs and a night on a bed bug-ridden mattress somebody dragged in from the street", all the while making the album he thinks will change hip-hop forever. Part Alan Sillitoe and part William Burroughs, UK rapper Lee Scott's debut novel, partially based on his own experiences of becoming a rapper in Runcorn, is an experimental and humorous modern satire about the perils of being a hip-hop visionary far from the beaten track...

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Book Synopsis The Plastic Garden shows us a new world with no suffering and only the body''s activities to sustain us: a farcical parallel to modern life. When Mike falls in love, he doesn''t know how to handle his emotions. Can the guru Mume Bibstripe save the day and put Mike back in to the real world and save him from his fall from this crazy Eden?

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Book SynopsisCat Society is a witty and bonkers story of life and politics in Westminster – reimagining the debates, events and headlines of recent years had the world been run by cats. A lot changes. A lot doesn’t. The country is on the brink of bankruptcy, and backbencher Douglas Schnitty is disappointed with the thousands of homeless cats sleeping by the bins. He gets frustrated with higher powers who only seem to care about their own interests and preserving the country’s finances. He schmoozes and sabotages his way through the political elite, from assisting the bombastic Hector Perp Pahpousson to disrupting the plans of the Prime Minister. Can his conscience save him, and the slum cats, as events spiral out of control?Trade ReviewI’m sure most cat owners have looked over at their sometimes mysterious, scheming- looking furry friend and at some point quietly wondered whether they’re planning on taking over the world. This 'claws out' paw-litical drama takes that idea and runs with it. From how the Government spends its British Mews and interacts with journalists at The Meowington Times, to its rocky relationship with the Global Cats Alliance, it’s a hilarious and somewhat realistic insight into what life could look like if our beloved felines did take the reins. -- Bridie Williams, Rehoming and Welfare Manager for the London Cattery at Battersea

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Book SynopsisJonathon Swift initially released The Battle of the Books, and Other Short Pieces as a compilation of satirical essays and pamphlets. The title article, The War of the Books, is a satirical allegory in which numerous literary creations are portrayed as soldiers fighting in a conflict between ancient and contemporary books. Other pieces in the collection include The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit, a satirical essay on the state of modern philosophical inquiry, A Tale of a Tub, a satirical attack on religious hypocrisy, and A Modest Proposal, a famous satirical essay suggesting that Irish poverty could be solved by eating their children. Swift uses his trademark wit and cutting sarcasm to criticize various societal issues throughout the anthology, including politics, religion, literature, and culture. His work is characterized by a caustic and sarcastic tone that often criticizes the hypocrisy and arrogance of the governing elites. Despite being more than three centuries old, the Battle of the Books, and Other Short Pieces is still regarded as a classic work of satire and English literature. Its impact may be observed in the writing of following authors like Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, and Oscar Wilde.

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Book SynopsisA virulent disease carried by foxes is spreading across Europe. In London an urgent cull is underway, spearheaded by Frank Smith, the young master of the Hyde Park Hunt. But for Britain's paranoid Prime Minister, fox flu is a chance to foist the ultimate in surveillance technology on an unsuspecting population: the Mulberry Tree system, secretly bought from the Chinese. When biochemist Christophe Hardy discovers the conspiracy, he finds himself caught up in a chase which starts in Beijing and ends in Northumbria involving animal rights activists, a beautiful female missionary, high-society Chinese assassins, and the world most innovative catering venture, the Pu Dong Pudding Company.

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Book SynopsisIn Raymond Chandler's favourite novel, Mr Bowling buys the newspapers only to find out what the latest is on the murders he''s just committedMr Bowling is getting away with murder. On each occasion he buys a newspaper to see whether anyone suspects him. But there is a war on, and the clues he leaves are going unnoticed. Which is a shame, because Mr Bowling is not a conventional serial killer: he wants to get caught so that his torment can end. How many more newspapers must he buy before the police finally catch up with him?Donald Henderson was an actor and playwright who had also written novels as D. H. Landels, but with little success. While working for the BBC in London during the Second World War, his fortunes finally changed with Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper, a darkly satirical portrayal of a murderer that was to be promoted enthusiastically by Raymond Chandler as his favourite detective novel. But even the author of The Big Sleep could not save it from oblivion: it has remained outTrade Review‘I think it's one of the most fascinating books written in the last ten years. Everyone who read it in my limited circle agrees with me.’ RAYMOND CHANDLER ‘There is an element of psychological fantasy in this novel. Mr Henderson pursues a grim little theme with lively perception and ingenuity. His manner is brief, deliberately undertoned, and for the most part curiously effective. There is acute observation in the portrait of Mr Bowling.’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘This tragedy of a madman is told with great simplicity, and is very much helped by the realism of its details. All the events take place in the duller London suburbs which are beautifully observed.’ DAILY EXPRESS ‘Henderson has written about Mr Bowling so well and so clearly that I feel like I have met him; he follows him with the affectionate care with which H.G. Wells followed Kipps. Indeed, there is in places a touch of Wells’s genius; he writes with great skill and his dialogue is vivid.’ RAYMOND POSTGATE in TIME & TIDE ‘Top marks go to Donald Henderson whose Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper gives us real hope of a literary discovery. This is a brilliant study in the macabre of a man who – almost it seems because he can’t help it – nonchalantly commits murders. A really fine thriller.’ SUNDAY GRAPHIC

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Book SynopsisThe first novel by one of the legends of the Harlem Renaissance, a classic in the annals of Black fiction.When Black lawyer Fred Merrit purchases a house in the most exclusive white neighbourhood bordering Harlem, he has to hire the toughest removal firm in the area to help him get his belongings past the hostile neighbours. The removal men are Jinx Jenkins and Bubber Brown, who make the move anything but straightforward.This hilarious satire of jazz-age Harlem derides the walls people build around themselvescolour and class being chief among them. In their reactions to Merrit and to one another, the characters provide an invaluable view of the social and philosophical scene of the times.First published in 1928, The Walls of Jericho is the first novel by Rudolph Fisher, author of The Conjure-Man Dies, whom Langston Hughes called the wittiest of the Harlem Renaissance writers, whose tongue was flavoured with the sharpest and saltiest humour'.This new edition includes Fisher's short storTrade Review‘Fisher is an unusual individual. A physician by trade, he also published several books, including The Conjure-Man Dies, the first hard-boiled detective novel by an African American. This, Fisher's first novel, introduces protagonist Merrit, who buys a house on the border between the white and black sections of Harlem in the 1920s. The novel details the difficulties faced by educated African Americans who tried to enter into predominantly white society.’–Library Journal ‘One feels, smells, and tastes Fisher’s Harlem; its people come alive and one cares about them.’–New York Times Book Review

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Book Synopsis***Now available for preorder: KILL ''EM ALL, the stunning sequel to KILL YOUR FRIENDS***The viciously funny novel by John Niven, bestselling author of Kill Your Friends and Straight White Male.What do you do when a homeless man knows your name?How about when he turns out to be a friend you haven't seen in twenty years?Do you treat him to a hot meal and see him on his way?Give him a wad of middle-class guilt money?Or take him in and get him back on his feet?For Alan, there's no question only natural that he'd want to see his old mate Craig off the streets, even if only for a few nights, and into some clean clothes.But what if the successful life you've made for yourself good job, happy marriage, lovely kids, grand Victorian house (you did well out of the property boom, thank you very much) is one that that your old pal would quite like to have too?Even if it means taking it from Trade Review‘He’s a funny writer, John Niven. Not funny peculiar: funny ha ha. Properly funny, in a scabrous and scatological sort of way, and in his latest book he doesn’t disappoint. It’s a big, comic tableau, painted in bright, broad shades with plenty of splatter marks … Niven makes sentences beautifully – which, in whatever genre you are writing, is what matters most – and this novel clips along as enjoyably as all his others … There are two John Nivens in this novel. One provides the broad farce … But the other supplies something that’s closer to Nick Hornby territory … Niven is particularly good on how easy it is to resent our friends, how charity can be covertly aggressive, and how psychological power dynamics don’t really shift from our teenage years … There’s a poignancy here ... Always worth reading. He’s a writer – or two – who still has a lot more in the tank.’ -- Sam Leith * Guardian *Underneath the scabrous wit, the raucous brio, the bracing rudeness, Niven is genuinely, brilliantly warm and funny and wise about men and women and the things they do to one another and themselves. This is his best novel yet. -- Stuart MaconieNo Good Deed is about the fall that waits one floor down for every male member of the chattering classes. Charles Dickens with a good strong dollop of Martin Amis and Quentin Tarantino – vintage Niven. Loved it. -- Rick StroudNiven is a master at probing dark, uncomfortable areas of the male psyche that most novelists – indeed, most men – would rather not have to deal with. * Scotsman *Snort-in-public comic excellence … One darkly humorous episode after another … The fact that I had such a visceral reaction to this book is testament to Niven’s great skill as a writer. He is a master of probing the dark, uncomfortable areas of the male psyche that most novelists – and indeed, most men – would rather not have to deal with … No Good Deed always feels rooted in the real world, even in its most outrageously improbable moments. -- Roger Cox * Scotland on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisThis book is quite possibly the most comprehensive book on Australian politics ever written. That''s right, it covers BOTH houses of parliament.We''ll take you inside the halls of power. And if we can''t actually get inside because of security, we''ll do some very fun speculating on what might be in there.One thing we know for sure is that this book is unputdownable. Something went wrong with the printing and it''s all sticky.

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